Implementing Agricultural Land Use Solutions to Adapt Climate Change in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta Huong Thi Hoang (1), Nam Phuong Pham (2) (1) VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi, Vietnam * Correspondence: huong.ht@vnu.edu.vn (2) Abstract: The paper presents theoretical issues related to climate change, agricultural land use, and the impact of climate change on agricultural land use in the Mekong Delta The research used comparative method and assessment method to point out the difficulties and challenges of climate change for agricultural land use as a basis for proposing solutions for effective and sustainable agricultural land use with climate change adaptation As of June 2016, 13/13 provinces and cities in the region had been declared affected by natural disasters, drought and saline intrusion Drought and saline intrusion caused about 139,000 hectares of paddy rice to be damaged with more than 50% of the area lost, causing about 215 billion VND loss and making about 400,000 households (1.5 million people) lack of water with an estimated total loss of nearly 7,520 billion VND The proposed solutions included perfecting policies and laws; changing varieties, crop structure and economic structure; Application of achievements of Industrial Revolution 4.0 in agricultural land use; limiting climate change induced factors; enhance the role of communities in the use of agricultural land adapted to climate change; complete the planning; building synchronous infrastructure and financial guarantee to implement solutions to adapt to climate change Keywords: Agricultural land use; adaptation solutions; climate change; Mekong Delta; Vietnam Introduction The Delta has always proven a difficult environment to manipulate However, because of population pressures, increasing acidification of soils, and changes in the Mekong’s flow, environmental problems have intensified (Stewart & Coclanis, 2011) The Mekong Delta in the Vietnam territory consists of 13 provinces and cities directly under the Central Government with a total area of 3.94 million hectares, a population of 17.5 million people (accounting for 12% of the natural area and 19% of the population of Vietnam) The Mekong Delta is always the largest rice bowl of Vietnam, making important contributions to national food security and export As of April 2017, the Mekong Delta contributed 50% of rice production, 65% of aquaculture, and 70% of fruit, provided 95% of export rice and 60% of aquatic production for exports of the whole country (Vietnam Government, 2017) Many agricultural products of the Mekong Delta had been present and favored in many places in the world, such as mangoes, rambutan, star apple, and others However, the Mekong Delta has been facing many challenges, the most serious of which is the impact of climate change such as sea level rise, saline intrusion, landslides, erratic floods This had adversely affected agricultural land use and affected farmers' lives and jobs, as well as the socio-economic development of the Mekong Delta Therefore, this paper aimed to answer the questions: What is climate change, the causes of climate change and how it affected agricultural land use in the Mekong Delta and what solutions are needed? To adapt to climate change in order to use agricultural land effectively and sustainably, contributing to socio-economic development and stabilizing farmers' life Methodology Climate change is understood to be the change of the earth's climate system, including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere due to various natural and artificial causes Causes of climate change include main causes (subjective and objective causes) The subjective reason is due to human impacts such as changing land and water use purposes and the increase of emissions of greenhouse gases from human economic activities The objective reason is due to the change of nature such as the change of the activities of the sun, the earth changes its orbit, the process of creating mountains and creating continental shelves, the change of many maritime currents and internal flow of the atmospheric system (FAO, 2011; Peter M & Michael R., 2011) In addition, changes that increase global temperatures and make rising sea levels are one of the top challenges that mankind has to solve (Vietnam ICEM, 2010) The Mekong Delta in particular, Vietnam in general, were also seriously affected by climate change as the sea level rises, especially the situation of invasive seawater took place strongly in coastal areas This made the area of agricultural land gradually reduced, many areas were difficult to cultivate, or cultivated with low economic efficiency (Vietnam MARD, 2017) Agricultural land is defined as land used for production, research and experiments on agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, salt making and forest protection and development purposes (Cao V.H., Pham P N., 2018) Specifically, according to Article 10 of the 2013 Land Law, agricultural land includes agricultural land, forestry land, aquaculture land, saltmaking land and other agricultural land Other agricultural land includes land used to build greenhouses and other types of houses for cultivation purposes, including forms of cultivation not directly on land; building stables for cattle and poultry breeding and other animals permitted by law; land for cultivation, husbandry and aquaculture for study and research purposes; nursery land for seedlings, land for flowers and ornamental plants Agricultural land use is to exploit the useful properties of agricultural land for economic purposes and human life In nature, agricultural land use is the practice of cultivating, animal raising, salt making and other activities on agricultural land to create products that serve the needs of the land users as well as the needs of the society Data related to research is collected from scientific works published in journals, internet and other documents such as legal documents, books related to climate change, climate change impacts on agricultural land use and climate change adaptation measures In addition, the study used comparative method and assessment method to point out the difficulties and challenges of climate change for agricultural land use as a basis for proposing solutions for effective and stable agricultural land use, adaptation to climate change in the Mekong Delta Results 3.1 The impact of climate change on agricultural land use According to the scenario of climate change and sea level rise in 2016, if the sea level rises by 1m, the Mekong Delta is the area most at risk of flooding (38.9% of the area), in which, the two provinces of Hau Giang and Kien Giang have the largest flooded area (80.6% and 76.9%) (Vietnam MARD, 2016) This will greatly affect the production and employment of most rural workers From the end of 2015 to June 2016, localities in the Mekong Delta suffered from severe drought and saline intrusion As of June 2016, 13/13 provinces and cities had issued decisions to announce natural disasters, droughts and saline intrusion in the area Drought and saltwater intrusion had caused about 139,000 of paddy rice damaged, of which more than 50% of the area were lost, resulted in losing of about 215 billion VND At the same time, drought and saline intrusion mad about 400,000 households (1.5 million people) lacked water for domestic use (Vietnam MONRE, 2016) It was estimated that the total damage during the saline - drought period of 2015-2016 was nearly 7,520 billion VND, of which Kien Giang, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces were the worst affected areas (about 6,050 billion VND) (Vietnam CSCNDPC, 2017) In 2017 and 2018, the Mekong Delta continued to suffer from unprecedented large-scale landslides and river bank erosion in the region's history of more than 300 years of development Landslides directly threatened people's lives and property, seriously affected the safety of coastal natural disaster prevention and infrastructure works, and degrade coastal mangroves The total damage caused by landslides on the river banks of the Mekong Delta provinces by the end of 2018 was about VND 2,766.6 billion Damages caused by natural disasters and climate change in the Mekong Delta were increasing rapidly with increasing severity (the heaviest damage was from 2017 to 2018 with 7,990 billion VND) Generally, in the period of 2010-2018, the total damage caused by natural disasters and climate change in the Mekong Delta was about VND 20,945 billion According to statistics, from 2013 to now, coastal erosion in Thanh Hai commune, Thanh Phu district, Ben Tre province has cleared 110 hectares of productive land of farmers, of which, the direct affected area was about 9, km with 97 households were living, caused many households to lose land and houses This had a direct impact on agricultural land use as well as residential land and life of Mekong Delta farmers (Nguyen Q T et al., 2019) Therefore, it is necessary to have comprehensive solutions on efficient, sustainable and effective use of agricultural land to adapt to climate change and turn the Mekong Delta into a prosperous development area, contributing more and more for the country's economic growth and development 3.2 Solutions to use agricultural land adaptable to climate change 3.2.1 Completing policies and laws Facing with the fact that the area of agricultural land was declining, especially paddy land due to the impact of climate change, it was necessary to amend and supplement the land legislation to suit the current situation Specifically, in order to use the land with decreasing area, it was necessary to improve the productivity per unit area through the application of technical advances to production or to increase the income from an area unit by changing the income structure, specifically the structure of crops and livestock appropriately and sustainably One of the first issues that need to be addressed was the quota of land allocation and management of paddy land But currently, the land law is still inadequate, the limit of land allocation to individual households directly engaged in agricultural production is limited, affecting the mechanization of production and expanding production following to big scale This requires revising the current Land Law in the direction of removing the land allocation quota and regulating the area of land allocation based on the agricultural land fund of each locality as well as the feasibility of production and business plan of land users In order to promote the accumulation and concentration of agricultural land to meet the requirements of high-tech production, according to the global value chain, the State should issue regulations to encourage farmers to contribute land to produce in large farm models, avoiding fragmented, scattered and inefficient use of land In addition, it also promotes regulations on recovering agricultural land which has been allocated to households and individuals but can’t be used or used ineffectively to assign subjects who use land more efficiently In order for the people in the Mekong Delta to be proactive in changing their crop structure, especially converting paddy land into fruit production or aquaculture with higher economic efficiency, the Decree 35/2015/ND-CP about paddy land management and use should be revised in the direction of allowing land owners to convert paddy land into other land with higher economic efficiency with clear grounds and approved by competent authorities with simple administrative procedures based on the approved land use plan At the same time, it is not necessary to keep a fixed area of paddy land to ensure food security as at present because in the context of internationalization, it is possible to import rice and export other high-value agricultural products as long as higher profits, stability and environmental protection In addition, the State should issue policies to encourage farmers in general and farmers in the Mekong Delta in particular to switch from pure agricultural production thinking to agricultural economic thinking, from quantity to quality associated with the value chain; from chemical agricultural production to organic and high-tech agriculture At the same time, the State should issue regulations encouraging enterprises to implement processing industries and supporting industries associated with the development of agricultural economy Along with that, the State needs to develop mechanisms and policies to promote investment, science and technology, train, develop human resources and support trade promotion to bring commodity products of the Mekong Delta into international distribution chains 3.2.2 Changing varieties, crop structure and economic structure In order to use agricultural land in the context of climate change, it is necessary to research and apply into practice the rice lines which are tolerant with salinity, flood, acid sulfate soil, drought Besides, it is necessary to grow short-term, high value cash crops to replace summer-autumn rice in the rice structure Short-term cash crops increase farmers' income and avoid saline intrusion in the dry season (Nguyen 2016) At the same time, to build an agricultural production structure based on three focal points of aquaculture - fruit tree - rice, linked with ecological sub-regions; develop green industry, low emissions, not harming natural ecosystems, focusing on developing renewable energy associated with forest development and coastal protection in the whole region; develop services - tourism into a strong economic industry based on effective exploitation of potentials, advantages of natural, ecological characteristics, cultural characteristics and people of the Mekong Delta 3.2.3 Applying achievements of Industry Revolution 4.0 in agricultural land use In order to use agricultural land with high efficiency, stability to adapt to climate change, the use of agricultural land must be associated with the achievements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 in agriculture, called agriculture 4.0 for short Specifically, the use of agricultural land must be associated with the sensor application that connects every things to most agricultural farms (IoT Sensors); Sensors and smart devices are connected and controlled automatically during agricultural production to help cope with climate change, improve microclimate in the greenhouse; LED technology is used synchronously in high-tech cultivation to optimize the growth process, applied in countries with little agricultural land or urban agriculture; Cultivating in greenhouses, net houses, using hydroponic and aeroponics technologies to isolate the natural environment and actively apply synchronous technology; Photoelectric cells (Solar cells) for efficient use of space, reduce energy costs, most farm / business equipment are powered by solar power and solar cell batteries; Using robots instead of human in tending plants and animals is becoming more and more popular, applied in aging countries and large production scale; Using drones and satellites to survey the status of data collection of farms, thereby analyzing recommendations on the basis of updated database to manage farm exactly; Financial technology serves the farm in all activities from externally connected farms, in order to devise the most effective farm management formula It is necessary to apply the achievements of Industry 4.0 and fields such as dairy, pig and chicken husbandry; farming shrimp and catfish on an industrial scale These industries don't require large area scale, there are models of high-tech applications in chains from production to export, so it is convenient for automation and use of robots (Pham P N, 2017) In aquaculture, it is possible to apply a farming system combining aquatic and vegetable / flower (Aquaponic); Producing flowers and fruits is convenient for automating seedling production, mechanizing soil preparation, planting, tending and harvesting; combined fertilizing and watering; preparations for off-season production; advanced preservation technology (controlled climate, cold drying ) With flowers need more technology to keep the flower fresh To prioritize the selection of fruit trees with concentrated scale, with technology and market, such as dragon fruit, orange, and pineapple; edible mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms / medicinal plants: can produce on an industrial scale with high added value in production systems controlled both in terms of climate and farming techniques, occupying a small area of land Prioritizing the technology of extracting active ingredients with high pharmaceutical properties such as nano curcumin or baby jackfruit oil, ginseng proceed to search for active ingredients with healing and beauty functions In rice production, proven overseas technologies such as remote sensing applications in production management and pest control, and crop management tools can be applied on smartphones 3.2.4 Limiting the factors that cause climate change Renovating and upgrading infrastructure because the infrastructure accounts for nearly 1/3 of the emissions of greenhouse gases on earth, so improving the environmentfriendly infrastructure will help improve the climate change situation In addition, the convenient transportation system will also play a part in reducing the amount of vehicle exhaust emissions into the environment Industrial zones need scientific planning and exhaust gas treatment to reduce environmental pollution Limiting the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas which cause great greenhouse effect Preventing indiscriminate deforestation to protect forest resources in particular and natural resources in general Besides, every citizen needs to raise awareness, plant trees, not discharge waste into the environment; economical use of electricity and water helps reduce environmental pollution; Working close to home to limit the use of vehicles in traffic From there, it increases a certain amount of waste into the environment Eat smart, enhance vegetables, fruits, plant clean vegetables, and not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides to limit the amount of toxic substances into the environment In particular, it is necessary to exploit new environmentally safe energy sources such as energy from the sun, wind, heat, ocean waves and ethanol from plants, hydrogen from water hydrolysis, etc 3.3.5 Enhancing propaganda, raising people's awareness and training, developing human resources Propagate and raise people's awareness to change their thinking, shift from pure agricultural production thinking to develop agricultural economy in a new and diversified model to meet market requirements in climate change context The economy of the region must change basically, from production models, production practices, livelihoods, lifestyles, population networks to each household; developing a diversified and quality agricultural economy, building a new countryside associated with the development and application of hi-tech, clean and organic technologies; actively living with floods and adapting to the region's natural features; efficiently exploiting and using brackish and salt water; Responding to natural disasters such as storms, floods, droughts and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta adapt to climate change Training and developing human resources: develop and implement projects on career change and job creation for agricultural and rural workers towards specialization and professionalization; provide market information, support to attract business participation; vocational training, human resource development, especially high-quality human resources; renovating the training work; develop human resources for collective and cooperative economy 3.2.6 Completion of planning Completing the planning of irrigation systems and natural disaster prevention is an urgent requirement, ensuring mitigation of damages in the event of natural disasters and actively responding to the most adverse climate change scenarios Implement a new model in land use planning with a multi-objective approach The model integrates many factors: land, hydrology and land use, productivity and finance in specific local conditions The model will help formulate adaptive strategies for the study area in the context of climate change and sea level rise The new plan should change from "living with floods" to "actively living with floods"; At the same time, the organization of territorial space in the direction towards forming ecological sub-regions serves as an orientation for economic, agricultural and infrastructure development; organize and develop the urban system and rural resident points suitable to the characteristics of natural ecosystems, specific conditions of the region and each ecological sub-region The criteria set out are models of conversion based on ecosystems, suitable to natural conditions, biodiversity, culture, people and natural laws The process of changing production models with long-term vision, improving economic efficiency and reducing vulnerability to risks, attaching importance to preserving cultural, historical values, biodiversity and ecological environment of the region Implementing the planning of orientations for sustainable agricultural transformation for the sub-regions in the Mekong Delta; irrigation orientations for sustainable development of the Mekong Delta adapt to climate change; develop a sustainable livelihood conversion plan for the people; plans to overcome river and coastal erosion in the Mekong river delta; master plan towards integration of Mekong Delta development and planning of network of monitoring, warning and forecasting systems on natural resources and environment, climate change and database of integrated inter-field, connecting with the Mekong Sub-region and other regions 3.2.7 Building a synchronous infrastructure system Infrastructure investment and development projects should be carried out to ensure consistency, inter-regional and inter-sectoral development, with focus, key and reasonable road Priority is given to urgent works, works of motivational nature, promoting socioeconomic development of the whole region, and essential works for people's life; focus on both structural and non-structural solutions Immediately perform urgent tasks to prevent landslides and serious subsidence in some coastal areas and river banks Promote the investigation, survey, construction and approval of investment projects for implementation Investing in embankments to create mangrove planting areas; develop mangrove forests to protect the sea dyke and river dyke systems, develop ecological livelihoods associated with forests Develop urban systems and rural residential areas suitable to the characteristics of natural ecosystems, specific conditions of the region and each ecological sub-region Upgrading and modernizing irrigation systems for natural disaster prevention, livelihood development, conversion, development and sustainable agricultural restructuring in ecological sub-regions, in which promoting formality public - private partners Ensuring safe houses in the conditions of floods, droughts, storms, floods, cyclones and sea level rise In the immediate future, to invest in and build residential clusters, residential lines and houses in flooded areas; piloting models of houses and buildings, avoiding storms and cyclones Invest in complete transportation infrastructure system, prioritize traffic works in areas prone to flooding; works in service of connecting and transiting to promote multimodal transport in the provinces in the Mekong delta region; invest in, build and synchronously develop information and communication infrastructure, electricity, water supply, water drainage and health networks Investment in water supply, drainage and waste water treatment systems, solid waste disposal complexes; promote recycling, reuse and energy production from rubbish for the Mekong Delta region in the direction of sustainable development Implementing and reviewing experiences from projects on sustainable development of sub-regions in the Mekong Delta region 3.2.8 Financial solutions In order to mobilize financial resources, it is necessary to apply the form of Public Private Partnership in new construction, upgrading of irrigation systems, supporting the consolidation and completion of in-field irrigation systems to improve resilience to drought and saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta Stepping up activities to mobilize financial resources for activities of sustainable development, adaptation to climate change in the Mekong delta; strengthening the efficiency of capital use and speeding up the disbursement progress, ensuring the efficient use of medium-term public investment capital Building a flexible mechanism to mobilize financial resources for sustainable development and response to climate change The Government should consider establishing a Sustainable Development and responding to climate change Fund in the Mekong Delta The Fund develops a clear operational management mechanism, to mobilize urgent funds, dedicated to each purpose, in accordance with the general principles of sustainable management and regional adaptation Select priority and urgent projects for implementation, on the basis of integration, inter-regional, inter-provincial and inter-sector, at the same time call for donors, international organizations and further development partners continuously pay attention and appropriate support both technical and financial for the Mekong Delta Further promote the role of the International Mekong Commission in financial support to share information, manage and sustainably use water resources among countries in the Mekong basin for the common prosperity of the whole region; and financial contributions from the business community and people for the sustainable and prosperous development of the Mekong Delta to adapt to climate change Conclusions The Mekong Delta is the nation's largest granary, making an important contribution to national food security and export Many agricultural products of the Mekong Delta have been present and favored in many parts of the world, such as mangoes, rambutan, and star apple, etc However, the Mekong Delta has been facing many challenges, the most serious of which is the impact of climate change such as sea level rise, saline water intrusion, landslides, erratic floods… This has adversely affected agricultural land use and affected farmers' lives and jobs, as well as the socio-economic development of the Mekong Delta To effectively and sustainably use agricultural land adapting to climate change, it is necessary to synchronously implement policies and laws; changing varieties, crop structure and economic structure; Application of achievements of Industrial Revolution 4.0 in agricultural land use; limiting climate change-causing agents; enhance the role of communities in the use of agricultural land adapted to climate change; complete the planning; building synchronous infrastructure and financial guarantee to implement solutions to adapt to climate change References Birkmann, J., 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and salinity intrusion in Ben Tre Province, Mekong Delta Springer, 133(1), 69-84 Stewart, M.A., Coclanis, P.A (2011) Environmental Change and Agricultural Sustainability in the Mekong Delta Springer, 1-3 Vo H.T., Nguyen Duy Can., Yoshifumi T., Mitsuyasu Y (2018) Water Use Efficiency in Rice Production: Implications for Climate Change Adaptation in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta Springer, 2(3), 221-238 ... according to Article 10 of the 2013 Land Law, agricultural land includes agricultural land, forestry land, aquaculture land, saltmaking land and other agricultural land Other agricultural land includes... agricultural land use; limiting climate change- causing agents; enhance the role of communities in the use of agricultural land adapted to climate change; complete the planning; building synchronous infrastructure... people of the Mekong Delta 3.2.3 Applying achievements of Industry Revolution 4.0 in agricultural land use In order to use agricultural land with high efficiency, stability to adapt to climate change,